movie recommendations

[Anonymous]

This was a big movie weekend at our house and I wanted to recommend 3 movies that we loved. With my DD, who's 9, we rented "Akeelah and the Bee," about a tween girl from a tough n-hood in LA who goes from secret spelling whiz and word-lover to winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The movie is a little schmalzy -- it basically follows the narrative of your classic sports movie -- underdog triumphs despite self-doubt and limited resources. Still, the girl's relationship with her mom (Angela Basset) and teachers (Laurence Fishbourne) felt very real. DD and I also saw "Fantastic Mr. Fox". She wanted to see it because she read the book recently, and though I expected it would be boring, it was really a hoot. Yes, it's a little self-consciously artsy, but it has a great story and the acting -- voices by George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray and Owen Wilson, who was spot-on as a high school coach -- really hooks you. DD reports that the movie is very different from the book, but she liked all the changes because they made the story funnier. Also, with DS, who's 15, we watched a documentary, "Harvard Beats Yale, 29-29" -- the great title comes from the Harvard Crimson's headline the day after the Harvard-Yale game of 1968. We're baseball fans and neither DS nor I went to Harvard or Yale -- in fact, we went to rival schools -- but we loved this movie. Again, it's a great David and Goliath story, told through original footage of the game, as well as interviews with some of the guys who played on both teams. The interviews are fabulous -- they make it more than just a sports movie but also a really interesting exploration of memory, aging and how events in your youth can have an impact on your life over the course of many years. Finally, as those of you with teen boys know, it was a relief not to have to watch a movie with fart jokes or AK 47s, or both.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that. We're always looking for decent things to watch, so thanks for your time. "Harvard Beats Yale" sounds perfect for us.

Here's my son's review of a Christmas Carol:

My 9YO DS did not like Christmas Carol. He thought the 3-D stuff didn't mix with the sadness and seriousness of what was going on in the movie and the whole thing didn't work (he also didn't like the sad parts - the commercials made him suspect goofiness).

As he said: 3-D is for dinosaurs and outerspace. It isn't good in movies like this.